Last evening, a Chicago talk radio station broke the news — widely disseminated by Mark Levin during his show — that the Democrats in the Senate were sitting on Obama’s Job’s bill because they didn’t have the votes to pass it, even among Democrats, some of whom refuse to vote for any tax increase in what will be very tough re-election bids, others of whom come from states where taking away tax incentives for oil producers will hurt their state economies, or cost jobs.
Surreal, in fact, was the audio, in which Dick Durbin unenthusiastically (and unconvincingly) touted the job’s plan — even while noting that Reid and Co., having lost a number of Democrat votes, would have to woo several Republicans if the bill had any chance of passing. (Incidentally, this is precisely why Mitch McConnell should have already called for a vote on this thing: a bipartisan defeat would humiliate the President, who is running around demanding that Congress “pass this bill!” — even as his own party is running away from the thing, knowing that it’s political suicide to support such a major tax increase in a recession. For his part, Obama doesn’t much care: his goal is not to pass it but rather to demagogue its inability to pass. He’s running against Congress, and if that means throwing Democrat Senators under the bus, well, all for the greater good.)
So. We have a President running around the country, shouting about an America that’s gone soft, demanding the bill his own Party is blocking be passed.
And to push that bill, Obama has been touting the “Buffett Rule,” a baldfaced lie based on what the President hopes is a wide scale public misunderstanding of the tax codes, specifically, the difference between income tax rates and capital gains tax rates. (By the way, Meg Whitman? Taking $1 salary to head HP. Bet you her secretary pays a higher income tax than she does!)
The only problem is, Warren Buffett is himself now running away from the thing. And in fact, he is now refusing even to endorse the President’s Job’s Act.
The upshot of which is that we’re now being treated to the spectacle of a President demanding passage of a bill his Party won’t support, peddled using the name of a billionaire who refuses to endorse it.
If you squint, you’ll find this a perfect little objective correlative for the entirety of not only Obama’s presidency, but the entirety of his carefully manufactured and marketed political career.
Barry’s gotten a little soft.
Then, widening our gaze, we see the people who became convinced that this was the man they wanted, even, possibly, the man they needed. Widening our gaze still further, we see there the critical trouble the founders had with democracy as such.
But then, perhaps, we hear Abe Lincoln speaking:
shameless lying whore lies shamelessly
Yes, the U.S. has gotten soft; evidenced by the majority of weak-minded people who voted in a lying dirty socialist.
Maybe the “president with the highest IQ ever” claim was a typo. Replace with “lowest”.
I must tip my cap to Bumblefuck for greenlighting some damned good shooting. Yippy ki yay, motherfuckers.
WAR CRIMINAL!
this wasn’t the story Obama wanted to tell.
What’s funny is one of our old friends arguing just that; timmyb. I lol’d.
Isn’t Obama’s “this is a great, great country that had gotten a little soft” an obvious guilty confession against his own interests, reflecting his personal knowledge that he should, by rights, never have gotten away with any of the ruses he has performed lo these many years? All we need recall is the sincere pause Michelle had prior to Barry’s rash decision to run for the Presidency. She knew damn well he’d be caught sooner or later, and most likely, that being caught, her own life and possibly her children’s lives would stand a chance of being ruined. Stupid, Michelle. You went with it anyhow.
Reid and company must be beside themselves. How many times is President Obama going to come up with a wonderful plan to get things going and only after he announces it do they learn what he had in mind? And because he never floats these things to them first they never get the chance to say ‘No, that won’t pass here, but this will’. And that leads only to another hit on President Obama’s leadeship, bringing further proof that he truly is a stuttering clusterf*ck of a miserable failure.
Mind you, I hope Obama continues to do what he’s been doing because as plans go it is truly masterful.* I expect he will continue down this path because it is obvious that Obama takes no advice from anyone not in his little circle in the White House, and that little group – now that Rahm has left – does not contain anyone who has any experience with how Congress actually functions.
*Masterful in that any right wing tea partying knuckle-dragger can see you get all of your ducks (and votes) lined up before you make a major policy announcement so that you aren’t humiliated when your own party rejects it. Fortunately, Obama isn’t a right winf tea partying knuckle-dragger – he’s a progressive, and there is nothing denser than that.
Buffett estimated that raising the tax rate on the ultra-rich multi-millionaires would raise about $20 billion and go a long way to solving the deficit.
He can’t be that bad at math. I mean, $20 billion into $1.5 trillion? A long way? It is to weep.
scoamf
I couldn’t live on $1 no way